3 vying for Otisville mayor job

OTISVILLE — It's going to be a three-way race to gain the top seat Tuesday in the Village of Otisville election.

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By James Nani

recordonline.com

By James Nani

Posted Mar. 15, 2013 at 2:00 AM
Updated Mar 15, 2013 at 9:34 PM

By James Nani

Posted Mar. 15, 2013 at 2:00 AM
Updated Mar 15, 2013 at 9:34 PM

» Social News

OTISVILLE — It's going to be a three-way race to gain the top seat Tuesday in the Village of Otisville election.

For the fifth time in a row, Otisville Mayor Brian Wona will be squaring off against Lou Maurizzio in the western Orange County village of about 1,100 people. But this year there's a newcomer to the mayoral race — Gary Ketchum.

Lou Maurizzio, 68, served as mayor from 2001 to 2007 and is running against Brian Wona again.

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Wona, 45, won his third term as mayor in 2011, defeating Maurizzio, 144 to 120.

This year the hot topic in the village has been the ongoing debate over forming a joint Mount Hope-Otisville fire district.

Wona, a Port Jervis Department of Public Works employee and Gulf War veteran, is running as a Democrat after running as a Republican in the last mayoral race. He said he switched because he "goes to the beat of his own drum" and "doesn't answer to party lines."Maurizzio, 68, served as mayor from 2001 to 2007, defeating Wona in 2005.

Wona said he's standing on his mayoral record of reducing debt in the village and building up reserve balances in water and general funds equalling about $539,000. He said he doesn't lean either way about forming the joint fire district, but has commissioned a study to find out what it would take to run the department without Mount Hope's fire fund contribution of about $341,000.

"Whatever the future brings between the town and village, we need an analysis done to find out what it takes to run the department," Wona said.

Maurizzio is a retired Sullivan County lumberyard manager. As for forming a new district, the candidate said he wants to prepare a list of pros and cons and a three-year budget that would be presented to villagers and then brought to referendum. The decision shouldn't be just up to the village council, whose members are also the fire commissioners, Maurizzio said. "It's too big of an item to have five people decide on," he said.

Ketchum, 60, a Mount Hope tax collector from 1982 to 2011, is a Mount Hope councilman and a retired corrections officer. He's also past chief of the Otisville fire department. He said he supports forming a joint fire district with Mount Hope because it "would take the politics" out of governing the department.

"Fire service should be removed from the political arena," Ketchum said.